My three year old has charted her own course when it comes to growth and development.
Early on it was pretty typical. She crawled at the normal time and walked at the normal time. She liked saying her animal sounds and slept through the night and was a pretty good baby.
As she got older and became more aware of her surroundings, she got a little nervous about some things. Crowded places. Loud noises. New people. We chalked it up to the fact that she stayed home with me during the days so it was just all new for her and a little anxiety was developmentally appropriate.
Around the age of two she wasn’t really speaking. She could say a few words and could somewhat get across what it was that she wanted. But speaking clearly or speaking in full sentences seemed like an unreachable goal some days.
So we signed up for speech therapy with the most amazing Miss Emily. And slowly, patiently, she started working with our complicated toddler. In addition to a speech delay, she was also struggling with some other social behaviors–eye contact, joint attention, etc. Every week we showed up and played and sang and interacted with Miss Emily.
Progress was slow, but with things like that baby steps sometimes feel like conquering mountains. Slowly but surely, this amazing little human emerged.
Today she is a lively three year old who chatters all day long, not just in sentences but in run-on sentences most of the time. She asks questions and talks about how she feels and all the things that once seemed impossible. There are still things that we are working on, things that feel hard. But having the ability to communicate about those things makes a world of difference.
I was cleaning out an old folder of papers last night and I found a note that I had written over a year ago after a speech session in which Miss Emily had stated the goal we were working toward:
“To have meandering conversations with people we like about things that are interesting to us.”
For my toddler that meant 1) being able to talk to another human in a sentence they could understand, 2) listening to their response, and then 3) responding to their response. At the time she set this goal, it felt equivalent to climbing Everest. With a toddler.
But yesterday, we picked my oldest up from school and my toddler greeted her.
Toddler: “Hi sister! How was your day at school?”
Sister: “It was good.”
Toddler: “Did you play with your friends?”
Sister: “Yeah.”
Toddler: “Oh you did play with your friends? I went to preschool today too!”
And it went on from there.
Just like that. A meandering conversation with someone she likes about stuff she cares about.
You guys, these moments, these wins – the one that belong to our amazing little people who are working hard at the hard business of growing and learning but that we have the privilege of witnessing first hand – these wins are what it’s all about.
So today I’m celebrating the miracle of meandering conversations.